Links!

Miriam: I want you to stop stalking overweight women
First of all, this guy is like a stalker, following her around, monitoring her. He’s creepy beyond belief. Secondly, this once again, for the millionth time perpetuates the myth that everyone who is overweight is secretly and guilty sneaking ice cream sundaes. We should know by now [...]

Stumbling towards ecstasy

Because of our delightfully stringent comments policy, most of the rants about fatties eating everything in a twelve-block radius never make it onto the site. Those “arguments” just aren’t worth thinking about. But we do see some genuine confusion from otherwise reasonable people who can’t see how non-restricted eating could possibly be compatible with health, [...]

Read ‘Em

There are about a gazillion things we’ve missed in the last week, so it’s round-up time.
First, though, I have a favor to ask of anyone who can swing it. Al’s friend Peter lost his job last July. He and his partner of 20+ years, Ericka, are now in danger of losing their house — [...]

Gupta out of Running for Surgeon General

Yee fuckin’ haw. Zuzu e-mailed me earlier with the news that Sanjay Gupta has withdrawn himself from consideration for the Surgeon General gig. Both she and Fillyjonk have written about what a fat-hating tool he is, if you’re unclear on why this is a good thing.
Of course, as Liss points out, it’s highly unlikely that [...]

All diets work the same: poorly

If you read the paper in the mornings, you may already have seen the news — the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine includes a study showing that all diets work the same, it’s only calorie intake that matters.

Some previous studies have found that low carbohydrate diets like Atkins work better than [...]

Pop Quiz

Which Fat Barbie image do you think is more likely to have a positive effect on children’s health?
This one (via Jezebel), with the tag line, “Keep obesity away from your child!”

 
Or, say, this one, with the tag line, “There are 3 billion women in the world who don’t look like supermodels, and only 8 who do”?

Why I floss but don’t diet

I recently started flossing regularly, partly because it’s good for my teeth but also partly because it’s potentially good for my heart. It seems utterly absurd to think that periodontal disease really causes heart disease, and I’m inclined to think that either the studies that found the association were flawed, that there’s a serious correlation/causation [...]

Welcome, Salon readers!

Regular readers: my essay from Feed Me! Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight and Body Image, edited by Harriet Brown, is on the front page (eeee!) of Salon today. Check it out!
Visitors from Salon: Welcome! Well, most of you, anyway. Please note that the comments policy here is a whoooole lot stricter than Salon’s, and [...]

Dear Oprah

Dear Oprah,
Please just stop. Please. And I don’t mean that in a nasty way (though some of my commenters will). I mean please, stop doing this to yourself.
I know saying that is pointless, because I’ve been there, and I know it’s hardly a matter of just telling yourself to get over it and accept that this is [...]

You Don’t Say

Overweight women find health care access and attitudes a constant struggle.
“The participants in our study described the experience of seeking healthcare as a constant battle and struggle and were upset by the reactions of healthcare staff” says lead author Professor Emily Merrill from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
“They told us that they felt even [...]